Mom Swap
by aprilhope
Summary: a little Mother's Day ficlet... not sure when it's set, maybe third season... mostly just anytime after Brian's mother, uh, met Justin? lol... Brian spends time with Jennifer, and Justin pays a visit to Mrs. Kinney.


**_Mom Swap  
_**_by AHS  
_

_**Justin and Mrs. Kinney**_

I didn't tell Brian I was doing it. I don't think his reaction would have been pretty. And I knew he was doing his best not to think of his mother today. Although, considering that he'd stolen my mother and was at that moment out to lunch with her... and we were going to see Deb together later, and probably Lindsay and Mel... I don't know what he expected me to do with my free time.

Definitely not what I did.

I found myself ringing the doorbell of the Kinney house. I took a determined breath and, shortly, _she_ answered the door.

Brian's mother's polite smile fell quickly when she saw me. I figured she would remember me. She hadn't looked at me for long when we, uh... met, but I suppose when you find your son with a naked man (holding his sore ass) in his apartment, that image must kind of burn itself into your brain.

I think she was about to call the police... _"Help, there's a homosexual on my front stoop!"_... but I just started talking, not giving her a chance.

"Brian is so amazing. You should not have the power to make him feel like shit, but you do. Whether you pay attention to him or you ignore him, you make him feel like shit. Is that what the Bible tells you to do? Is that what God wants? _My _God made Brian as he is… made him beautiful and made him to fuck men. Made him the best at it, too," I said proudly.

"I don't have to listen to this." She started to close the door, but I put a hand on it, keeping it open.

"You're his mother. Maybe you never should have had kids, but you did. You're supposed to love them no matter what. And you can say you love him, but the way you do it... it might as well be a bat to the head." If she only knew what that meant coming from me.

She looked outraged, in varying degrees, as I spoke, and finally a bit shaken. But I finished what I'd come to say.

"Look, I may think you're an emotionally castrating, bitter old woman who's fucked up my boyfriend in a lot of ways, but you did give birth to him, and I'm grateful for that." I thrust the (very thorny) bouquet of roses into her hand. "Happy Mother's Day. Have some flowers."

I figured she'd drop them to avoid queer cooties, but she actually clutched them to her. I'd made my way down the steps and halfway down the driveway when she called out to me.

"Do you?"

"Do I what?" I asked, unsure of where she was going. Read the Bible? Go to church? Fuck men up the ass?

"L-Love him?" She seemed disgusted by her own question, but she made herself get it out.

I gave her credit enough to answer her seriously. "Yes. Very much."

She looked like she didn't know how to react. She couldn't smile, or say, "That's nice," because obviously it meant her son and I were going to hell. But she did finally nod at me before going back inside and shutting the door. Not accepting, of course, but maybe... Maybe the mother part of her pushed past the preachy old bitch majority for just a second... and managed to be glad her son had someone.

_Even a dirty little faggot like me._ I grinned and walked away, skipping.

x

_**Brian and Jennifer**_

"Sunshine will see you later. You get me for now."

"Well, this is… a surprise," said Jennifer Taylor, when I joined her at her table for two. "I was looking forward to having lunch with my son."

"Lunch with your son on Mother's Day? That's so predictable."

"That is generally what I like about it. Not that it isn't good to see you, Brian."

Seeing that she was mildly disappointed, but not too upset, I chanced giving her a kiss on the cheek, which I'd never done before. She smiled at me, so I guessed it was okay, and we sat down.

"I think he wanted to help me experience the _joys_ of Mother's Day."

"You don't have plans with your own mother?"

"Oh, I'm sure she's spending the day praying for my soul, even as it burns in the eternal hellfire. Me? I'm roasting marshmallows." In the absence of marshmallows, I held a breadstick over the lit candle on the table, then took a big bite out of it.

"Justin… well, he didn't really tell me anything, but I got the impression you and your mother don't have the best relationship."

"Huh," I half-laughed. "That's one way to put it. But then, who does? Besides Justin… and Michael."

"After Justin met her, he called me to tell me he was really glad that I'm his mother," she said uncomfortably.

"So am I."

The champagne I'd ordered beforehand arrived. Jennifer looked at me curiously until the waiter finished pouring and went away.

"Justin's a lucky little…" I stopped, in case she missed the affection with which I called her son a 'little shit.' "He's a lucky young man. You're a great mom. Not that I know much from great moms, but I know you are one."

She nearly choked on her champagne. "Why… thank you, Brian. I'm- I'm stunned."

"Good. You've knocked me on my figurative ass more than once, you know. From the first time we met, you barging into my office. Not to rail at me for seducing your precious baby, like most moms would do. No, to introduce yourself, almost as an afterthought, as you throw a bag of his underwear at me and tell me to make sure he takes his allergy medicine."

"With you was where he wanted to be. If that was going to be the case, I wanted to make sure he was taken care of."

"When you said, '_You fucked him_,' I knew I liked you." I raised my glass to her appreciatively.

"I was trying to speak your language," she giggled, and I knew where Justin got it from. "Now I think it's mine, too."

"Too much time spent with Deb."

"Oh, I'm glad for it. Feels liberating." She tilted her head, studying me. "I'm not sure when I knew I liked you."

I never knew it had been decided that she did like me. I was intrigued.

"Maybe it was as early as… when you brought Justin to the house. I was surprised by you. You really encouraged him to listen to us and to come home. Until his father opened his mouth, insisting he basically be a different person in order to stay in his own home. I wanted Justin there, but part of me was still cheering when he walked out with you."

I even respected this woman. "I don't think I ever congratulated you on your divorce, by the way. You really dodged a bullet there. And I'm not just saying that because your ex smashed my jeep and my ribs."

Her face pulled into a silent _I'm sorry_. "Justin's lucky to have you, too."

Mark that down as the third time she knocked me on my ass. And, wouldn't you know, that's when the waiter returned to take our orders. I don't know what I said, or what I ended up eating. I could only focus on the words just out of her mouth.

"I mean it, Brian. I shudder to think who my son might have gotten involved with or what could have happened to him. You are older, and it seemed like all you would do was hurt Justin, but you've done more for him than I can even say. Regardless of my mixed emotions and mixed messages at the time, you saved his life when he was bashed. You kept an eye on him from a distance. When I asked you to stay away, you did. When I turned around and asked you to take him, you did."

"Yeah, that was the second time you knocked me on my ass."

"You made him feel safe again. You brought the light back into him. You've given him a home, money, education, confidence. You've made him happy."

"And you've given him support and unconditional love. I guess we're both pretty fucking fabulous, hmm?" I was glad she didn't think of me as a dirty old man, but her praise was becoming too much. I had to turn it back on her. "Trust me, most mothers would not have handled the situation as well as you did."

"Can you think of any less supportive way I could have handled things where I wouldn't have lost him?"

I thought, watching the bubbles escape from my champagne. "Maybe. But one of us would have. I'm glad we didn't have to find out which one." Damn. Don't tell him I said that.

"Me, too." She raised her glass this time, and I clinked mine against it.

"Happy Mother's Day, Mother Taylor." I winked at her. "Want to adopt me?"

She smiled behind her glass. "Maybe someday." She winked back. "Something like that."

x

_**Brian and Justin**_

"My mother told me to thank you again for the pin. What pin?"

"I gave her a little present." Brian had given Jennifer a pin of a shining sun, filled in by yellow diamonds. She had been reluctant to accept the gift, knowing it was expensive, but finally was unable to deny its meaning.

"That's so sweet. She probably loves you more than she loves me now."

"Not quite, but I'm working on it. And what did you do while I was with your mom?"

"Oh, you know. Did some reading."

"Really? I think there's a message you need to hear."

Brian went to the answering machine and pressed play.

"_Brian? It's your mother… I don't know what to say… I haven't changed my mind or my beliefs… What you're doing is against God, but… I do love you… I do… You're my son… Thank the young blond man for the flowers… although I wish he hadn't trampled the ones in my yard… Give me a call some time. Maybe we can go to church again."_

Justin shook his head at how Mrs. Kinney just really didn't get it, and then waited for Brian to demand to know why he'd gone to see his mother and what he'd said. Waited for him to get pissed and go off. But Brian just said…

"You trampled the flowers in her yard?"

"Um… I was skipping on my way out… I guess I might have."

Justin felt Brian's arms wrap around him from behind and his smile against his hair.

"Nice job, Sunshine."


End file.
